


Beauty of the Unhidden Heart

by starbear (panda_hiiro)



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: M/M, post kh3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:34:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22729222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panda_hiiro/pseuds/starbear
Summary: Roxas might have been content to sit there just like that, in companionable silence, with Sora’s warm, calloused hand in his own. That was, after all, what he really wanted - this tangible proof that Sora was here, that they both were here, together, existing in the same space and time. He never wanted to let go of that hand, if it meant he could keep Sora there for even one moment longer. But his heart wouldn’t let him stay quiet - his stubborn, unpredictable heart, that he fought so hard for and yet still understood so little.After Sora makes it home, he and Roxas have some things to talk about.
Relationships: Roxas/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 56





	Beauty of the Unhidden Heart

**Author's Note:**

> How is it even possible that I've been a Kingdom Hearts fan since 2002 and this is the very first time I've written fanfic for it???? 
> 
> Well. 
> 
> Here we are.
> 
> Wrote this for Soroku Week, trying to get some KH3 feels out of my system. The title is from a Glitch Mob song of the same name.

Everything about this was strange. 

It was weird being here without Axel or Xion; Hayner, Pence, or Olette might have made sense, but it was _Sora_ sitting beside Roxas now, their feet dangling over the edge of the clock tower, the warm summer breeze carrying the faint, distant smell of the ocean up to them. They each had a stick of ice cream in their hands, but though Sora had been happily making progress on his, Roxas had yet to touch his own. A steady trail of sticky blue dripped, unheeded, onto his fingers. 

“You know,” Sora said, all cheerful and casual, “I think this is the first time I’ve actually been here.”

“Is it?” Roxas had been here so often that he’d lost count of how many times he’d seen the town like this, a miniature world bathed in the warm glow of twilight. What had it looked like to him, the first time he saw this scenery? What it did look like to Sora, now? 

“Yeah. But, still, it feels...nostalgic. Like I’ve seen this place a thousand times. It makes my heart ache a little.” Sora placed a hand over his heart, as if to emphasize the feeling. “I wonder if that’s leftover from you and Xion.”

“Maybe.” Roxas shrugged, but the thought didn’t sit well with him. This, too, was strange - this noisy beating of his heart, thrumming drum-like in his ears. “Who knows? I still have a lot of your memories rattling around in my head. Stands to reason we’d leave some behind in yours, too.” 

Sora scrunched his face up, as if he’d eaten something sour instead of the salty-sweet ice cream.

“Do you think so? But, they’re your memories. Your feelings,” Sora said. “I didn’t mean to keep them. I’m sorry.” 

“It’s okay.” Roxas sighed. “Don’t apologize.” 

He didn’t want to be talking about this. It was an old conversation by now, this back and forth about what belongs to who, about how all their different pieces align together. At any rate, it shouldn’t have been Sora apologizing - he had never taken anything that wasn’t his. 

Roxas didn’t even realize that they’d lapsed into a long silence until Sora broke it with an abrupt burst of laughter. Roxas stared at him, as if he couldn’t quite process what the sound was. 

“Sorry,” Sora said, when he managed to recover himself, “It’s just, it’s so weird! We finally get to see each other again, and look at us. Talk about awkward.” 

“Yeah. No kidding.” Roxas had to laugh a little at that too, and finally, he felt some of the tension between them dissipate. “I guess I just don’t know where to _start_. There’s so much I’ve wanted to tell you.” 

“Me too,” Sora said, with a smile so soft that it made Roxas’s heart ache. “I missed you. I’m sorry I was gone for so long.” 

“I missed you, too,” Roxas said, soft, a little whisper that came straight from his heart. He reached for Sora’s hand and twined their fingers together, perfectly interlocking with each other. 

“Ew,” Sora said, “Your hand is all sticky.” 

“My ice cream melted.” 

“Gross,” Sora said, but he made no move to pull his hand away. 

Roxas might have been content to sit there just like that, in companionable silence, with Sora’s warm, calloused hand in his own. That was, after all, what he really wanted - this tangible proof that Sora was here, that they _both_ were here, together, existing in the same space and time. He never wanted to let go of that hand, if it meant he could keep Sora there for even one moment longer. But his heart wouldn’t let him stay quiet - his stubborn, unpredictable heart, that he fought so hard for and yet still understood so little. 

“I thought it was my fault,” Roxas said, in a voice so quiet he barely recognized it as his own. “When you disappeared. I thought it was because of me.” 

“What?” Sora’s whole body tensed, and he stared at Roxas with a look of open shock. “Roxas! No! It wasn’t your fault at all! Why would you think that?” 

"Because, I mean...I was a part of you, right? And I couldn’t help wondering if maybe we made the wrong choice, being separate like this,” Roxas said. “I think about it every time I see Ventus, and he talks about finding Vanitas. Like he _needs_ him to be whole again. And I thought, maybe...I really did take too much from you, after all.” 

“No.” Sora said it plainly, simply, with no hesitation at all. “That’s not true, Roxas. You’re here. You’re _here_ , and I’m here, and I don’t want it to be any other way, ever again.” 

“Okay.” 

Roxas didn’t ask for a promise, nor did he offer one in return - they’d both been through enough to understand that such vows could be broken, no matter how earnest their intentions might be. Maybe Sora was right - they were here, together, now. Maybe that was all that mattered. 

“But,” Sora continued, his brow furrowing as he frowned, “There is a part of my heart that hurts when I’m not near you. I noticed it, ever since I got back.” 

Roxas wanted to say that he felt that way every day Sora was gone - that intangible ache, like a person-shaped hole carved into his chest. His heart had known its share of hurt, but this had felt different somehow, like a sense of longing for something he did not yet know the name for. To hear Sora say that he felt that too filled him with a complicated tangle of emotions that he didn’t even know how to approach dissecting. 

Having a heart was a very, very complicated thing. 

“What do you think it means?” 

“Hm.” Sora’s frown deepened, and he fidgeted a little, twirling the now clean stick of his ice cream in his free hand. “I guess it means...I want to be with you.” 

Oh. That made sense - Roxas was, once again, startled by Sora’s uncanny ability to distill the most complex concepts down to the simplest of terms. 

“I want to be with you, too,” Roxas said, but Sora did not look satisfied by this. “What’s wrong?” 

“I kinda mean...in a specific way.” 

“Specific? How?” Roxas frowned a little. “Is it like...Ven says Vanitas was always calling him ‘brother.’ Do you mean like that?” 

“Oh god, no. _No_ . Definitely not. _Absolutely_ not like that.” 

“Then...like _what_?” 

“Like...this.” And, to illustrate, Sora leaned over and pressed a quick, light kiss to Roxas’s lips. The taste of sea-salt lingered there, a perfect mixture of tangy and sweet. 

And, just like that, all of Roxas’s uncertainties seemed to slot perfectly into place, an understanding that he previously could not even fathom wiping clear the doubts and worries that had plagued him for so long. Someday, he would get used to having a heart, and all the weird, unexpected jumble of emotions that lurked inside it - but there was probably nothing that could have prepared him for the sudden rush of warmth spreading through his chest then, a flush that seemed to rise up right from his core. 

“ _Oh_ ,” he said, after a long silence. 

“‘Oh?’” Roxas had never seen Sora look quite so distressed. “What does ‘oh’ mean?” 

“‘Oh’ means…’oh.’ Okay. Yes.” Roxas nodded, well aware that his brain had apparently ceased functioning. “‘Like this’ is good.” 

Sora made a snorting little laugh, his shoulders shaking in a brief giggle fit. 

“You are _so_ weird.” 

“Hey,” Roxas said, elbowing him, “Who do you think I get it from?” 

“Nah. You definitely grew all that weirdness all on your own.” A hopeful note rose in Sora’s voice. “So...are you saying, that’s a ‘yes?’’ 

There was so much about this to find strange - being here, feeling this way, untangling the knotted and twisted cord that bound them together. And yet, Roxas found no room for hesitation when he smiled, and said, 

“Yes.” 


End file.
